Is No Rest for the Living (NRftL) gratis software?

[doomlayman]

Even if software is FOSS, principally I would pay money to use it unless it's gratis.

 

I went to Steam store (where I bought TUD, Doom2, Final Doom and MLfD2) searching for No Rest for the Living (NRftL) to buy it too, but I didn't find it there; I did find Doom 3 BFG edition which includes it but at least now I want to buy NRftL and no other Doom series product.

 

I thought about downloading NRftL WAD (NERVE.WAD) and play it but I am not sure if it's gratis software or not; if it's not than I might just pass on playing it until I could buy it singularly or until it becomes gratis.

[Edward850]

It's available as part of Doom2 on Steam (both the base version and BFG edition, though the base version is more functional), Bethesda.NET, Switch, Xbox, PS4, Android and iPhone. Go to the addons menu and you'll have the option to download it. 

Edited February 10, 2021 by Edward850

[sanicstudios]

I think the only way to acquire the wad in current means is through Doom 3 BFG or the Doom 2 Steam rerelease. They both normally go for very cheap nowadays

[Gez]

You will not find NRFTL as a separate product in the Steam store. Instead, since you have Doom II on there, run it in the new engine (not the original DOS version), and from there you will be able to download a variety of official add-ons, one of which is NRFTL. Once you have downloaded it, you will find it as Users\<username>\Saved Games\id Software\DOOM 2\WADs\3\3. Instead of being called NERVE.WAD like in its original distribution or as found in Doom  3: BFG Edition, it is simply named 3, without even the .wad extension.

 

You can copy it into another directory and name it nerve.wad to use it more conveniently with other source ports.

[doomlayman]

31 minutes ago, Gez said:

since you have Doom II on there, run it in the new engine (not the original DOS version), and from there you will be able to download a variety of official add-ons

 

I just learned that it requires registering to Bethesda's website which is something I don't want to do... These days almost anything becomes bureaucratic and I am generally against business-bonding (such as registering to websites in general). 

 

I might just buy Doom 3 BFG.

[sanicstudios]

The steam version does not require you to sign up to Bethesda anymore

[Gez]

1 minute ago, sanicstudios said:

The steam version does not require you to sign up to Bethesda anymore

To play, yes.

 

To download add-ons, you still do need to log in.

[sanicstudios]

Really? I don't remember having to do that.

[Gez]

I think you get logged-in automatically if Steam is in online mode and you had already logged in Beth.net from a Steam game previously (even a different game, like Skyrim).

[sanicstudios]

Ah. That'll probably be Eternal then.

[Edward850]

34 minutes ago, Gez said:

I think you get logged-in automatically if Steam is in online mode and you had already logged in Beth.net from a Steam game previously (even a different game, like Skyrim).

Correct, it's linked. It does the same thing for all platforms, once linked any other game on the same platform will see the first party login and it just gets handled automatically. 

 

This was initially a great source of confusion when doing Doom64, as we'd never worked with any of the first party authentication systems before then. In a somewhat unforseen way that turned out to be quite helpful later on. 

[Rudolph]

Cool!!!

 

Unfortunately, I see that the Unity build comes with unskippable intro videos. Any way to disable them?

[Edward850]

Press space bar to skip them. 

[Rudolph]

Ah, I see. Thanks! No way to permanently disable them, though, like with Doom 64?

[ZeroTheEro]

53 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

Ah, I see. Thanks! No way to permanently disable them, though, like with Doom 64?

No. You could technically remove the video files from the StreamingAssets folder but the next time you start you will be seeing a black screen, and you would have to press space to skip the black void regardless.

also game will not instantly close on exit if you do that.

[doomlayman]

4 hours ago, sanicstudios said:

Ah. That'll probably be Eternal then.

 

sanicstudios, I assume you already bought Doom 3 BFG; if so, please kindly check and tell me if it includes NERVE.wad without the need to register and login to Bethesda's cloud.

[ZeroTheEro]

Yes, NRFTL is in BFG Edition.

 

[Rudolph]

58 minutes ago, ZeroTheEro said:

No. You could technically remove the video files from the StreamingAssets folder but the next time you start you will be seeing a black screen, and you would have to press space to skip the black void regardless.

also game will not instantly close on exit if you do that.

Oh man. I miss the days when I could just enter a command in Steam's launch options to skip Doom 3's videos.

 

Why did Id Software have to add those videos in the first place? So pointless and annoying...

[sanicstudios]

2 hours ago, doomlayman said:

 

sanicstudios, I assume you already bought Doom 3 BFG; if so, please kindly check and tell me if it includes NERVE.wad without the need to register and login to Bethesda's cloud.

 

I do not own BFG Edition but I do know that it comes with NERVE.wad.

 

EDIT: I would recommend buying Doom 2 and not Doom 3 BFG as the BFG ports of Doom 1 and 2 are severely crippled compared to the steam versions.

[doomlayman]

By the way, I am quite surprised that NRftL isn't marketed as a standalone product (or as part of the classic Doom package on steam); it's quite a "marketing absurd" as this is but another official (storywise at least), Doom software product.

[sanicstudios]

It's only 1 episode's worth of levels. There isn't really a point to selling it as a standalone product unlike Final Doom.

[Vorpal]

52 minutes ago, sanicstudios said:

It's only 1 episode's worth of levels. There isn't really a point to selling it as a standalone product unlike Final Doom.

 

Haha well lots of companies charge $7.50 for a single skin for a single character. I think the issue is something completely different, like marketing managers not even being aware of their own company's portfolio of doom/doom2 IP.

[sanicstudios]

Lots of companies do that, yes, but id isn't one of those companies. Plus who would bother paying the extra money on steam? It would most likely end up being a DOSBox emulator with the wad thrown on top. Why not, instead, buy the Doom 2 port which is a pretty respectable port and that gives you the ability to download other official addons for free (e.g NRftL, TNT, Plutonia, SIGIL etc). I don't think id/Bethesda would see much profit from releasing something purchase that is already free.

[doomlayman]

1 hour ago, sanicstudios said:

It's only 1 episode's worth of levels. There isn't really a point to selling it as a standalone product unlike Final Doom.

 

I kindly disagree :) if the price is humble (say 2-3 USD) I would gladly pay it; let along pay one more USD on my classic Doom pack and get it then.

They could even market it as part of a Doom 2 package which includes MLfD2 also.

[sanicstudios]

1 minute ago, doomlayman said:

They could even market it as part of a Doom 2 package which includes MLfD2 also.

 

But the Doom 2 package now includes the enhanced port which includes NRftL as a free download

[doomlayman]

2 minutes ago, sanicstudios said:

 

But the Doom 2 package now includes the enhanced port which includes NRftL as a free download

 

I think we both define "free" a bit different in that context; for example, I recognize the demand of Bethesda to register to their website as a contradiction to software freedom; I generally avoid registering to websites from philosophical reasons.

[sanicstudios]

If it really bothers you that bad, just setup a quick burner email account that you don't use for anything other than BethesdaNet. Your data isn't getting sent off to some secret spies somewhere. It's a very small downside for access to a ton of great Doom content.

[Vorpal]

35 minutes ago, sanicstudios said:

Lots of companies do that, yes, but id isn't one of those companies.

 

ok we'll just pretend "season passes" in doom 2016, eternal, quake champions don't exist, id is in it for the gamers, not generating money!

[sanicstudios]

They handle the classic games how they've always done. 2016, Eternal, Quake Champions etc are new games that live up to modern standards. All I'm saying is that if they were going to monetize a 9-pack of levels for a 25 year old game, they would've done so already.

[doomlayman]

1 hour ago, sanicstudios said:

If it really bothers you that bad, just setup a quick burner email account that you don't use for anything other than BethesdaNet. Your data isn't getting sent off to some secret spies somewhere. It's a very small downside for access to a ton of great Doom content.

 

I understand what you suggest but I ideologically avoid such actions (I don't worry from security in this case :) ).

 

The question is - is this software product really gratis? If it is indeed Gratis and Bethesda don't care if someone else distributes it, I might just download it from some "abandonware" website without guilt as it's all just a matter of software license.